Silver Fox in the Hen House
by Motsie of Atlantis
Summary: Tony had been gone over two months and the team was down an agent. Gibbs had tried to get a replacement, but no one would fill the bill. Finally Vance stepped in and gave him what he needed - or did he?
1. Chapter 1

**Silver Fox in the Hen House**

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Tony had been gone over two months and the team was down an agent. Gibbs had tried to get a replacement, but no one would fill the bill. Finally Vance stepped in and gave him what he needed - or did he?

 **Silver Fox in the Hen House**

A/N. Written from the prompt that NCIS is looking for a particular person to fill the void when Tony leaves the show. We have no idea who they are trying to tempt into the role, just a generic idea of what her type of agent will be like. This is gonna be so totally AU when we finally find out, but it is fun to speculate. For what it is worth he is my my semi sequel to 'Rule Six be Damned'.

 **Silver Fox in the Hen House**

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 **NCIS Headquarters || Navy Yard, Washington, D.C.**

Leroy Jethro Gibbs was quickly running out of options. It had been two months since he found Tony DiNozzo's letter, service weapon, and credentials, sitting on his desk. Tony finally had turned his back on the life that he had here at NCIS and launched out to find a 'normal' life while he was still young enough to enjoy it.

He was still a senior agent down in his team at the MCRT. There was not a single agent on any of the secondary teams that he felt comfortable elevating to the number one team. He could move McGee up to senior agent status, but he still would need another agent to pair up with Bishop. And the probie was still not far enough along in her training for him to feel comfortable to advance her to full agent status.

He was in a quandary. He looked up at the names up on the wall, so many of them would have been an easy choice to move into Tony's vacant slot. William Decker, Jim Nelson, Ned Dorneget, all were no longer with them, having offered them up in the service of their country. Thoughts of Dorney brought a tear to his eye and his hand ghosted to where his latest wound had scarred over already. He replayed the events of that day in his mind, so proud of how many other lives he saved, and regretting that he had to lose his own.

Stanley Burley had his own team in Miami and probably would not want to transfer out off the land of fun and sun. Tom Survoy followed up on leaving NCIS and went to work in the private sector, even though Gibbs refused to put in a word for him. Nikki Jardine had the experience, but her background was that of an NCIS intelligence analyst. In addition to having the same opinion of intelligence analysts that Hetty Lange had, Gibbs did not need another one on his team. Bishop was an intelligence analyst with NSA, but there was just something about her that Gibbs noticed that got him to invite her as a probie on his team. So another analyst was not needed on the team. Cassie Yates was on a deep cover assignment somewhere in the world, but since it was a 'need to know' mission, Gibbs was not provided with any of the particulars. Unofficially, he was told that he needed to look somewhere else for another member of his team, because Cassie would be unavailable for the foreseeable future.

He thought that he had found the perfect person when he brought in Tina Larson. She had the experience he needed in a team member and the intelligence to match McGee. She had been on his team before, so she knew how they operated. The reason she left was that Tony constantly hit on her. Since Tony was no longer part of the team, Gibbs figured that she could seamlessly transition to the MCRT again. But that was years ago and time changed a lot of things. Although Tina still on good terms with McGee, Tony's presence still haunted the squad room, and she felt as if he still was there watching her. After three weeks she went to Gibbs, explained her problem, and asked for a transfer.

Gibbs had gone over the list of agents in all of the NCIS resident agencies throughout the world. Of all the agents that were assigned to each of those agencies, there was no one that he felt that he could steal and make a member of his team. All of the good ones were already taken and usually had teams of their own.

He tried to get CGIS special agent Abigail Borin to switch over and join NCIS. But she tried just as hard to recruit him to transfer over to CGIS, telling him it would be easier for him to move than her. NCIS had more rules and regulations that one had to remember, and she did not want to have to go back to school.

The Special Agent in Charge shook his head at the options with which he was left. It would take at least another six months before he would feel comfortable signing off on Bishop's agent status. Even at that, he would want at least another year before he could consider her training complete. He just didn't have the time to take another newbie fresh out of FLETC and train them from scratch. He highly doubted if he still had that many years left in him. He'd faced his own mortality earlier this year, and it rocked him to his core. Normally an extremely closed off man, he sought out his surgeon, Dr. Cyril Taft, to talk to him about his near-death experience and all the things he felt about it. Even a year ago something like that would never have happened. Gibbs would have just grinned and bore it, like he always did in the past. It would be locked away, along with all his other feelings, where no one else could see them, where only he would deal with them.

But something had changed him. He no longer could do it all alone. When he tried it again after his surgery, he ended up collapsing. Yeah he was getting older, but that had always been the case. Others had noticed it too. Gibbs wondered if that was the reason why Director Vance kept a close eye on him now. Almost every time he looked, he could see Vance at the door of his office looking down at him. It was almost getting to the point of paranoia. He had no idea of what it would take, but he had to get Vance off of his back. He knew that Vance had an attempt on his own life, that left his wife and Eli David murdered. Talking about it didn't help Vance. He wanted vengeance.

Gibbs had been down that route after the death of Shannon and Kelly, and found that it didn't help. It didn't bring them back. It didn't lessen the pain. They still were gone and there was a hole in his heart that Dr. Taft could never fix. And the older he got, the more he thought about it and all that he had lost the day that they were taken from him. If it weren't for his damn sense of duty in wanting to give his people every advantage that he possibly could from all his years of service, he would have quit a long time ago and looked for something that would be less stressful to live out his life.

But none of this speculation was helping his problem. He still needed another agent to fill out the team, and he had no idea where he was going to find one that would meet all of his qualifications.

Just then the Director's door opened up and he led a woman in her late thirties down the stairs into the squad room. The click of her heels brought everyone's eyes onto her, wondering who she was and why she was there. Vance led her up to Gibbs' desk, and gentleman that he was, he rose to meet her, "Gibbs, this is Tess. Tess, Gibbs. She is the new member of your team. I'll leave you two to get acquainted." With that he turned and headed back up to his office.

Gibbs' eyes grew wide at the announcement. "Wait a minute, Leon. Don't I get a say in any of this?" he demanded.

"You've had two months, Gibbs, and even I can see the desk is still empty. Do you have an alternative agent to fill that spot?" Vance shot back at him.

"You know I don't." was the answer he received.

"Well, I've solved your problem, haven't I?" he answered his agent. Turning to the newcomer, Vance said, "I told he wouldn't take it well. I'm sure that you have dealt with people like him before. He's all yours, Tess." Vance continued to walk up the stairs to his office.

Gibbs took off after him, protesting all the way. Tess trailed behind the two men, as she quickly ascended the stairs back up to the Director's office. Again the click of her heels was the only sound in the squad room, until Vance's office door slammed shut with a concluding concussion.

None of them saw the brief signal that Gibbs had given to McGee as he started to chase the Director. Tim had been with the team long enough to understand the unspoken language that had gone on between Gibbs and Tony. Now with Tony gone, it would fall to him to carry on these unvoiced conversations. McGee understood that Gibbs wanted him to find out all he could on the newest 'member' of their team. With just a slight nod, he answered, 'On it, boss," and fired up his computer, running a facial recognition program throughout all the federal databases.

And there she was, large as life. Former FBI agent who had worked in the counter-terrorism office in New York City. Fifteen years with the bureau, bounced around from one office to another, She received fantastic reviews for her insight and her bravery and reprimands for her sarcastic attitude with her superiors.

Tim looked up at Gibbs and thought, God, this was just so much what the boss didn't need. A good agent with bad people skills, and from the looks of these reports, Tess would be even worse than Tony. I gotta find something redeeming in all this, or it is gonna be like living in a swamp, with alligators on both sides of me, chewing on my ass.

He went over to the personal statistics side of her file and was appalled. A natural redhead, Tim looked up toward Vance's office, slightly shaking his head. What the hell was Vance thinking? He knew about Gibbs and redheads. Was he trying to get Gibbs to resign?"

Fifteen years in government service had gotten her three governmental husbands and three governmental divorces. There was a personal note added to the file on her last husband, by Eric Britt, her supervisor, "If you value your life when talking about marriage, do not push it further if Tess says that she tried with men, 'but none of her husbands could keep up with her.'" At least she didn't have any children to complicate her life. Tim shook his head again. It looked like they were not getting Tony's replacement, but a female Gibbs. Maybe he should alert Abby right now and start a pool on when the first major explosion within the MCRT would take place. If he were quick enough, he could even get his bet down for today.

McGee did a little further digging, using one of the tricks that he was shown once by Eric Beale, that was highly illegal but utterly informative. It got him into a section of Tess' files that were normally closed off to anyone less than assistant director status. He began to read the excerpted comments on agent performance that were placed into her file over the past fifteen years.

The earliest comment was by Joe Duram, her captain during her training period. He described her as a 'hard-edged' probie, uncompromising in her dedication to the job. He was surprised that she spent eighteen hours in a car on a stakeout with her partner, awake the whole time. When he asked her about it, she claimed that sleep and sex were highly 'overrated' but if he was offering her a good martini and a rare bacon cheeseburger when she got off duty, she would follow him anywhere.

Four years later she was working undercover for various operations throughout the New York area. Detective Dave Ortega, commented on just two of the operations that happened back to back. He said she "can just as easily keep up with a group of politicians talking at a black-tie fundraiser as she can truck drivers at a roadside diner. She is extremely quick-witted and can adapt herself to any and all situations."

Then there was the time when her partner, a young black man named Scott Fry, was accused of conduct unbecoming an agent, by Hector Reeves, a member of another team. Reeves had no idea what was going on in the life of Fry, all he saw was Tess, giving her partner a shoulder to cry on, to help him deal with the pain of his wife of six months being diagnosed with breast cancer. When she found out of what Reeves had accused them, Lieutenant Tom McCall said she came storming into his office, like a mother bear, protecting her cubs. When Lieutenant McCall said that he knew all about it, and had placed a reprimand in Reeves' file, her demeanor changed instantly. His big note in her file, in capital letters, DO NOT MAKE THIS WOMAN ANGRY AT YOU. The woman is 'two parts bulldog, one part sweet kitten,' and her bite is a lot worse than her purr,"

Scattered here and there throughout the comments section are mention of her sarcastic remarks to her superiors. She constantly butts heads with them and does not care how much she ruffles their feathers, especially when she is certain that she is right.

Tim thought to himself, Oh, boy. I know a few women that are just like that, as his thoughts turned to the last 'discussion' he had with Delilah. How high will the estrogen level get here in the squad room before the walls will get repainted from the orange they are now to a beautiful pink, and do I wanna be around to see it?

One thing was certain, Gibbs wouldn't have to raid the OSP in Los Angeles and bring Callen here to join his squad. In Tess he has a renaissance woman, a special agent that is every bit as good as Callen is, at least on paper. A female combination of Gibbs himself and his so-called son was going to join the team and try work with them. Future life in the MCRT is going to be anything by dull with Tony gone and Tess aboard.

And from the amount of time that Gibbs had already spent in Vance's office, trying to get him to change his mind, Tim knew that, like her or not, Tess was here to stay. He started putting together all this information into a report for Gibbs and marked it for his eyes only. He knew his boss was not going to be happy with what he read and really wondered how long the old silver fox would be able to live in this hen-house.


	2. Chapter 2

**Silver Fox in the Hen House**

I have had several requests to write how Tess is going to fit in with the team. Against my better judgment, I am going to try to write that story. I'm not going to invite the Los Angeles crew in to help. It's going to be tough enough just to get Tess integrated into the D.C. scene and adjusted to working with Team Gibbs. So, even though the title of this story indicates this story is about Gibbs, this chapter is about the new Agent on his team.

 **A/N: This will be the final chapter in this story. Anything more will have to wait until Tess is brought into the cast. We need to give her a fair opportunity to work with the team and not just complain about the fact that Tony is gone, Ziva is gone, both of them need to be together and back on the show. This is life. People move on. We all need to stop living in the past, and look forward to what can be an even better future, if only we can open up our minds to it.**

 **Disclaimer:** The characters and sets of NCIS and places throughout Washington, DC are all owned by CBS, Donald P. Bellisario, and Shane Brennan, the owners of Fiola, and the Federal Government. I only own aa active imagination. I do get to play with everyone, but they all have to be home by curfew.

 **Chapter 2**

For the next half hour, a lot of shouting and yelling could be heard coming from Director Vance's office. Most of it sounded like it was coming from Gibbs.

Finally the door opened and Gibbs came storming out, and headed down the steps toward the squad room. Tim had never seen the look that his boss' face exhibited. There was anger there, but also obedience, as if the man was giving in to something he really didn't want to do. Some would claim it was resignation, but Tim knew it would never be that. Even in the worse case scenario, Leroy Jethro Gibbs would never give up, and anyone who said he would, just simply did not know the man.

The tap, tap, tap of her heels on the floor was the reason for the fireworks behind the office door and the look on Gibbs' face as he came down the stairs. Tess had a strange smile on her face as she followed down to the squad room. It wasn't a look of satisfaction, like she had won a great battle going up against a superior. It was more of a saddened smile, as if she really hated that things had gone this far, and she was being forced into a situation where she really was not wanted.

If it stayed that way, Tess knew that it would destroy the team. They would never trust her enough to consider her one of them, to know that she had their backs when they would need her. And even if she were told she was on the team, she still would be all alone, They would take care of their own first, and only then, if there were time, resources, opportunity, would they look to cover her six. This was not a team, it was a family. One of their members was gone forever. It didn't matter that he didn't die, to them it was just the same. And now they were being asked to accept an orphan into their midst, adopt a new child to fill the missing gap. _Oh, god, Tess,_ she thought to herself, _what the hell have you gotten yourself in for?_

As she descended the steps, she looked at the man ahead of her, and a twinge of pity came over her for him. She had to admit that her own people skills were not the greatest in the world; they were part of the reason why she no longer was with the FBI. But, even as bad as they were when dealing with the incompetence of her superiors, they were far superior to the ones that Director Vance had just showed her in his office.

No one deserved the 'either / or' ultimatum that the Director dropped into Gibbs' lap like Vance did. Doing it that way, stripped away every little bit of pride that Gibbs had. The man had been shot and his recovery was longer than usual because of complications with his injury. At his age, he just didn't heal as fast as he did when he was younger. Tess was wondering if Vance was using things like this to question the judgment of the man, vetoing any agent that he would want to transfer onto his team.

Or was it even worse? Was Vance trying to ease Gibbs out of his job? The agent had given his whole life to stopping the criminals and helping those that needed him. Each and every member of his team was personal to him. Tess could tell that was true, by the way they still talked about Tony DiNozzo, even though he had been gone for two months. If Gibbs was phased out of his job here at NCIS, what did he have to live for? The man would have absolutely nothing left.

Halfway down the steps, Tess looked out at the two other agents in the room. The male, Tim McGee, kept giving her furtive glances, as he tried to make it look as if he was totally involved with something on his computer. Tess immediately labeled him as more of a tech guy than a field-work man. She felt that she never had the smarts enough for her to try to do anything more than the basic work on the computer. Way down deep inside her was a little bit of awe of those who could take a machine like that, and find a suspect halfway across the country, or follow a money trail through a dozen different accounts throughout the world.

She knew from her briefings by Director Vance that Tim must have been good. If he wasn't, Gibbs would have gotten rid of him a long time ago. She also knew that he played second fiddle to Tony the senior agent who, under Gibbs, had lead the team. Tess just wondered if McGee would be able to step up and make the team his own. She sincerely hoped so, Gibbs just didn't need the anguish to look for another agent to lead his team if Tim couldn't do it.

The other agent, the female Eleanor Bishop, was sitting on the edge of her desk, holding her laptop and watching McGee closely, looking for him to direct the team response to what had been going on. Tess would have to bide her time to see what the others called her, last name, first name, or some sort of diminutive. Whatever the others called her, she would go with that.

The intel that Tess was able to find about her didn't reveal a whole lot. She had been an analyst at the NSA, writing papers that no one seemed anxious to read. She married an NSA lawyer, Jake Malloy. Her paper on an unsuspecting mole carrying in an everyday item with a bug in it was realized, when the SECNAV's pen was found to be compromised.

In 2014, Benham Parsa and his terrorist group, the Brotherhood of Doubt, bombed a Washington DC hotel and killed SECNAV Clayton Jarvis and severely injured former NCIS Director Thomas Morrow. Parsa later used a drone to attack a Washington political shindig, killing six and wounding twenty-two, including Tim McGee and paralyzing his girlfriend, Delilah Fielding. Bishop came to the attention of NCIS when she was found to be the expert on Parsa. Almost bordering on the point of a neurosis, the young woman had been tracking him for the past six years. Through her help, Parsa was captured and Gibbs had the pleasure of making sure the terrorist's career was done. The Director said that she was surprised when Gibbs offered her a position on the team.

 **Three Weeks Previously**

Tess had recently come off a four month FBI undercover operation investigating weapons and ammunition being moved through Honduras by a small shipping company. They had to wait until the ship arrived and waited its place in line at the deep water port of Puerto Cortés. Once there, the roll-off handling equipment quickly moved the weapons to a holding area, where a truck with containerized trailer picked it up the next day. They tracked it through the capital of Tegucigalpa, and the moment it entered a warehouse in El Paradiso, near the border of Nicaragua, the Federales staged their raid and arrested everyone there on weapons trafficking violations.

Tess was somewhat surprised when she received a phone call from the office of NCIS. Her initial thoughts were that the Navy organization had an operation on which they wanted the FBI to join. It had happened before, but usually the request came down through channels and she was informed by her supervisors. Then, when Director Vance asked to meet her at a small restaurant in Queens, her hackles started to rise.

Still, her curiosity got the better of her, and she met with the Director. She was utterly shocked when he offered her a position in Washington. Vance explained to her that his elite MCRT team there was one person short, due to the departure of the senior special agent in charge. He gave a brief, general explanation of the unknown circumstances of Tony DiNozzo's leaving, along with a fairly detailed résumé of each of three remaining agents. He went so far as to list the quirks of each of them. Gibbs built boats in the basement of his house that were too big to get out through the doorway, Tim McGee wrote spy novels that were roughly based on the MCRT team, and Ellie Bishop would sooner lay all her work out on the floor instead of her desk, and remembers things in connection with what she was eating at the time, in a weird 'food-association' mental filing system.

Tess didn't know what to make of this offer. She wondered if all the stars and planets were coming into conjunction just for her. She had come close to telling her supervisor off a couple of times prior to her last undercover operation, and she was wondering how much longer she could hold her tongue, at what she considered was his incompetence. Maybe it was time for her to leave, before she burned all her bridges behind her. When would she get an opportunity like this again? This was not just a sideways move between the two federal agencies. She was being offered a place on one of the NCIS elite teams. An opening like this came once in a lifetime.

Her personal life entanglements were fast disappearing and no longer stood in the way to prevent a move of this nature. Three months ago the two year lease on her apartment had run out, and she continued to live there on a month to month rental agreement, She liked the place, but it was not something that would ever keep her from moving.

Her love life could use a relocation too. For the past year she had been seeing Derrick Burch, a Power Distribution Engineer for the city of New York. The man was married, but had no children, His wife, Chelsea, had grown tired of him and sought her own 'adult entertainment' outside of the marriage bed. Derrick had started divorce proceedings, but she was fighting it, tooth and nail, because she loved all the money her husband made. But then this undercover assignment came up for Tess. When she got back, four months later, she found that Derrick and Chelsea had reconciled, and Tess was left out in the cold. Being with Derrick had been comfortable, but it wasn't something to fight with his wife about. Maybe it was time to go and see the manly offerings in some other city.

The Director gave her a week to make her decision, She called him back the following day, and told him that she really didn't feel that she had to make a move, but the offer he was extending to her was way too good to pass up. It would make her a better agent to work with this elite team. Even if she couldn't hold up her end among them, when she would be moved to another team, it would only be as a smarter, more competent agent. If the offer was still open, she would take it.

The Director told her that if she could get all her affairs in order, she could report to FLETC in Glynco, Georgia, by the end of the week. Because of her extensive service in the FBI, all she would have to take would be those courses in NCIS methods and procedures. Vance said that he would fast track her in these so she should only have to spend a week or so there. For any advanced training, she could go to Gibbs who could train her himself.

 **NCIS Headquarters || Present Time**

Gibbs came walking into the squad room and announced, "Tim, Probie, we've got a dead marine; hit and run outside of Rockville."

Bishop grabbed her bag of camera equipment. It was one of the Probie tasks to take the crime scene photographs and lug the equipment around.

Gibbs looked at her with a puzzled expression on his face. "Bishop, what are you doing?" he asked.

"You told me to get my stuff, Boss," she answered.

"Give all that to Tess. She's the probie now. You've graduated. You go to Quantico and speak with the members of Corporal Miguel Giron's squad," ordered Gibbs.

"On it boss," she said with a smile, as she slung the bag of equipment onto Tess' desk and headed toward the elevator.

Tess had a quizzical look on her face when she heard that she was now the Probie. Gibbs looked at her and asked, "What? Newest person on the team is the probie, and on this team, photographer is a probie job. It gets you to look at the crime scene so you don't miss anything,"

A slight smile came across Tess' face at his explanation. She might learn to enjoy it here. Gibbs just taught her an important lesson about himself. He could be an excellent teacher, who could impart the years of knowledge he had to the people under him, without making them feel foolish or stupid for their lack of that awareness.

Tess almost missed the next question he asked her, "You do have a personal weapon with you, correct?"

"Of course," she answered.

"Bring it along with you. We'll stop in the armory where you can leave it and take it home tonight. Draw a SIG Sauer P228, or a P239 like Bishop uses, and tactical gear for work. The gear you can keep in your go bag and leave it in the car."

"My personal is a Glock 19, standard issue for the FBI," Tess replied." I don't want to trade it off until I have some time to work with a service issue weapon, to make sure I'll know just what it will do."

"Fine. McGee, when we come back, go with her and make sure she checks out on everything."

He looked at Tim before saying the final word, "Properly."

"Got it, Boss," was the reply.

 **Crime scene || Rockville, Maryland**

Tess had finished taking pictures of the victim, and watched as Dr. Mallard and Jimmy Palmer zipped up the body to take it back for autopsy. As they rolled him over, she noticed a bit of black paint on the Marine's otherwise immaculately polished belt buckle.

"Can you check where that black paint came from?" she asked, pointing it out to the medical examiner.

"His whole uniform will be sent to Ms. Scuito for her analysis," Ducky told her.

"Found a piece of trim here in the gutter. Might have come from the vehicle that did this." Tim announced.

"Bag it and get it to Abbs." was Gibbs' reply.

After checking out the whole crime scene, and finding only the rubber markings of dual tires on the pavement where a truck spun its wheels before driving off, the three agents started to knock on the doors of the houses facing the street. Most of the people either were working and not at home, or just did not want to get involved and did not answer their doors. Finally, at a house halfway up the street, an elderly man came to the door to talk with Tim.

"Yes, sir." he said. "I heard a loud thump. But when I got to the door, all I saw was the soldier lying in the street. I called 911 and reported it."

"Did you see anything suspicious earlier today? Anything that was out of the ordinary?" Tim asked.

"Not really. There were two people in a parked truck earlier. They were parked over there." The man pointed over to the spot where they had found the tire tracks. "But it just looked like two people, talking to each other."

"Could you tell if the people talking were male or female?"

"No, I really didn't notice. Of course, I wasn't really that interested in two people talking in their truck."

"Do you remember anything about the truck itself?"

"It was a black Chevy. I recognized the logo. It had a crew cab and dual rear wheels."

"Could you make out what year it was?"

"No, I'm really not into trucks."

"Well, thank you for your help. If you can think of anything else, please give me a call," Tim told him as he handed the man one of his cards.

 **NCIS Headquarters || Navy Yard, Washington, D.C.**

By the time the three agents returned from the crime scene, Bishop had gotten back from her trip to Quantico. She told the rest of the team that the consensus among the members of his squad was that he felt his wife, Ashlee, was having an affair. He didn't know who she had been seeing, but he felt there were too many suspicious signs that warned him she was unfaithful. Gibbs grabbed Bishop and headed off to Giron's off post housing to interview his wife, and see what they could find there. While they were gone, Tim and Tess would hit the computers to find out everything they could on both Miguel and Ashlee. If there was time, they were to hit the Armory and have Tess checked out on the SIGs, so she would have a service issue weapon.

When Gibbs and Bishop visited with Ashlee Giron, she played the role of the grieving widow, almost perfectly. All of their answers were answered without any hesitation or slipups. Yet, there was something in her voice, or the way that she answered the questions, that just didn't set right with the young female agent. After they thanked Ashlee and took their leave, she stopped Gibbs on the way to the car.

"Can we do a short interview of some of the neighbors?" the young woman asked.

"Something bothering you, Bishop?" Gibbs looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah. Something just didn't ring true with what she was saying."

"So, what do you think we will find?"

"Don't know. Maybe some evidence that someone other than Miguel was here visiting the widow?"

"Okay, let's do it, then."

Ten minutes later they were invited into a house down the street, owned by Peter Hickman, a retired railroad machinist helper for the Union Pacific.

When they asked him about the Giron house, he invited them to sit down and began to explain.

"On several occasions, while I was out walking my dog, I have seen a man visit that house when the Corporal was not home.

Gibbs asked, "Do you have any idea who this man is?"

Mr. Hickman went to his front window and pointed out a house to the older agent. "The man lives over in that house up the block. I'm sorry, I don't know the man's name."

"Do you happen to know what type of vehicle the man drives?"

"It's a black crew cab pickup truck, with dual wheels on the back."

Gibbs looked at Bishop with a smile on his face. "Thank you very much, Mr. Hickman." he said as the two agents left the house.

They called back to headquarters to get McGee to find out everything he could on Ashlee's visitor. Tim told him that Abby had determined that the paint and piece of trim belonged to a 2008 GMC Sierra 4x4.

Gibbs instructed Tim to find out what type of truck was registered to the man visiting Ashlee, and if they matched, to get a warrant for his arrest.

McGee told Tess what they were doing as he checked the housing records. He found that Ricky Ray was the one living there. He told Tess to check the name in the various data banks for wants, warrants, and priors. He would run the truck to find what jurisdiction in which the truck was registered, in case they had to issue a BOLO on it. Tess was extremely happy that she was only about two or three minutes behind Tim in finding out the information he requested.

Their person of interest was Ricky Ray, a thirty-two year old semi white supremacist. He had been living there for the past two years, while he was bearing the brunt of the divorce action his former wife brought against him. She had accused him of adultery, and he did not contest it. Tess could find nothing against him in any of the federal data bases, and wondered if Tim was going to ask the local LEOs about him.

A quick in-house call had an assistant looking into the local rap sheet of Ricky Ray, while another short call to legal, started the process of obtaining a warrant. Only then did he place a return call to Gibbs and let him know where the case stood. Evidently, everything that Gibbs would want him to do had already been done or at least started. All McGee said was "On it, boss." and "Already started." before he hung up. Tess was really impressed with how well this team operated, and how much independence Gibbs gave to the members of his team. She realized that all of this was based on the level of trust that had evolved between all of them, and she was determined that she would also earn that trust from them,

Two hours later the case was wrapped up. Ricky Ray had been taken into custody and admitted that Ashlee had called Miguel and lured him over to a different neighborhood, and was the one who was in the truck with him when he ran Miguel over. Ashlee had planned everything out and had gotten him to go along with her. Either way, neither of them would be free for many years.

 **Fiola Restaurant || Washington, DC**

To celebrate the conclusion of their first case with Tess on board, the team decided to take her out for a great meal at Fiola, one of the best Washington metropolitan fine dining establishments. Tess was warned that this would be a once in a lifetime experience, simply for the fact that Vance was paying for it.

Tess hated to get all dressed up for a group dinner like this, but it was a very exclusive restaurant, and she really wanted to make nice with the other members of the team. She ordered Risotto 'Cacio e Pere' and when it arrived, it was just heavenly. She called the server back to the table, and asked her if she would deliver her compliments back to the chef. She had just come here from New York City and didn't expect to find that the food served here was just as good as the famed restaurants of the 'big apple'. She had never had risotto this good since she last had it at Flamma in New York, while Fabio Trabocchi was still part owner and chief chef there. The server acknowledged her request, with a smile on her face, and went off to do her bidding,

About five minutes later, a man in a white uniform with a bit of a goatee came walking up behind Tess. "What's this I hear about someone liking my risotto?" he asked as he approached the table.

Tess turned around and almost shouted "Fabio" as she rose up and gave him a great big hug,

Fabio squeezed her back as he greeted her, "Tess, it is so good to see you again." He held her out at arm's length and looked her up and down.

"Though it has been a while, time has been very kind to you. You are looking very well."

Tess blushed deeply and tried to hide it by burying her face into his chest.

The rest of the people sitting at the table were completely dumbfounded. Finally Bishop asked the question that was on everyone's mind.

"Ah, Tess, I take it that you know Fabio Trabocchi."

Both Tess and Fabio were laughing. Tess turned around and introduced him to the whole team. Then she went on to explain that when she first was posted to New York City she had access to so much fine dining, but she never could afford to eat in those restaurants. So she learned how to cook and became a fine amateur chef. Through the years she became personal friends with a couple of chefs that appeared on the Food Network, including Fabio Trabocchi. She even had a couple of recipes that she helped develop that are on the menus of their restaurants.

Fabio looked over at her plate and said with a laugh. "I see you ordered one of those dishes you helped develop tonight."

Tess stepped up on the tips of her toes and gave him a kiss on the cheek as she admitted, "And you cooked it to perfection, thank you."

"If I knew it was you out here, I would have invited you back into the kitchen to help me make it. But now, I have other guests to deal with. If you will all excuse me. Please enjoy your meal."

The rest of the evening was spent in small talk, centered on Tess, what chefs she knew, what recipes she enjoyed making most, her opinions on various pairings of meats and side dishes. When everyone was done with their meal and the conversation was slowly dying down, Gibbs called the server over that he could pay the bill with the credit card that Vance had given him. Instead of the young college age student who brought them their food, a woman in her late thirties dressed in a smart business suit approached their table.

"I'm Patricia Anderson, assistant manager here at Fiola. Is there any way I can be of service to you?" she asked.

"Yes, we would like to pay our bill." Gibbs told her.

"I'm sorry, sir. The bill has already been taken care of." he was told.

"Taken care of? By whom?" Gibbs wanted to know.

"I was told by Chef Fabio to just mark it, 'friends of the owner' and consider it paid, and that is what was done. Please enjoy the rest of your evening," She turned around and walked back to her office.

Everyone looked at Tess, not knowing what to say to her. She just shrugged her shoulders and thought, _I think that I am going to fit in well with this team. Maybe this transfer was the best thing that had ever happened to me._


End file.
